Breakdown of Se vincessi la lotteria, finanzierei l'organizzazione.
se
if
la
her/it (direct object)
vincere
to win
la lotteria
the lottery
finanziare
to finance
l'organizzazione
the organization (f)
Questions & Answers about Se vincessi la lotteria, finanzierei l'organizzazione.
Why does this sentence use vincessi instead of a regular past tense like ho vinto or vincevo?
In English, we say "If I won", using the simple past tense. However, Italian has a strict rule for these hypothetical situations (the second conditional). The "if" part of the sentence (se) must use the imperfect subjunctive (vincessi), and the result part must use the present conditional (finanzierei).
Vincessi can mean both "I won" and "you won". How do we know who is winning here?
You are right that the io and tu forms of the imperfect subjunctive are exactly the same (vincessi). We know it means "I won" because the verb in the second half of the sentence, finanzierei (I would finance), is in the io form. If the sentence were about "you" winning and financing, it would say: Se vincessi la lotteria, finanzieresti...
Why is there an "i" in finanzierei? Don't -are verbs usually drop the "a" for an "e"?
Regular -are verbs do change the a to an e in the conditional (like parlare becoming parlerei). Verbs ending in -ziare (like finanziare) or -diare (like studiare) keep their i because it is a fully pronounced vowel, making it finanzierei. You only drop the i in the conditional if it is a silent letter just used to make a "soft" sound, like in mangiare (mangerei).
Could I flip the sentence around and put the se part at the end?
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